The Penitentes

The SF Chronicle recently ran a "reflective" essay in which a person "discovers" Santa Muerte and gives us his oh-so profound final shot: "We are Mexicans, and our affinity for Death runs deeper than hope." The first comment from a reader? "Whatever dude."

Americans - of whatever ethnic stripe - have been getting their kicks off of the "salacious details" of Latin American religion for some time. From colonial-era tales of the cruelty of Spanish priests to the skinny chick Santa Muerte, the English-speaking world likes to focus on the "exotic" religion of Latin America (wow, how many more quotes can I use in this selection). There is even a new film out with Simon Baker called Not Forgotten that includes - ahem - the "bloody" rites of the Santa Muerte. Gag.

Just for fun, I thought I'd highlight a previous obsession U.S. Americans used to have with another aspect of Latino religion, the Penitentes Brotherhood of New Mexico. Centered around flagellation that was introduced to New Mexico by the Third Order of St. Francis in the seventeenth century, the Penitentes started out as a public organization but by the arrival of the U.S. in the area they had most certainly gone underground. And of course, like any religious practice that is supposed to be personal, private, and sacred, the media got right on to "exposing" the rituals of the Penitentes which include mock crucifixion.

Famed writer Charles Lummis wrote an article for Cosmopolitan in 1889 with engraings based on his photographs of the mock crucifixion and whipping. Writer Carl Taylor was allegedly murdered by his house boy for an article he published in Today on the topic, or so said Time magazine in 1936. '36 was a busy year for the Penitentes as that year marked the introduction of Roland C. Price and Harry J. Revier's explotation mash-up of documentary footage and S&M studio footage called Lash of the Penitentes. Some how this film didn't make it into Helen Delpar's book The Enormous Vogue of Things Mexican.

Anyway, the a fun YouTube clip is included below. I hope you enjoy the campy trash ... um ... trailer (trailer trash?).

FYI - For more info on the Penitentes, see Marth Weigle's 2007 A Penitente Bibliography. The drawing is by Santa Fe artist Will Shuster.

Menonitas - This Time in South America

Mennonites held their world conference in Paraguay this week (where they fled to from the Soviet Union) as many Spanish Language news sources are taking a hard look at them. El Mundo ran a piece on conservative Altkolonier campos in Argentina, while Bolivia has been abuzz about Mennonite colonists in that country due government displacement of Mennonites there as well as a sexual assaults that occurred in one of the communities.

Many of the Mennonites in South America ran there after failing to make things work in Northern Mexico (meaning they ran out of land in Chihuahua and Durango or they decided they didn't want electricity and gas engines) and now we have a real dilema in the south. Business-friendly administrations were eager to take in these agricultural geniuses in the late 80s and early 90s, but now leftist governments are changing the rules and Mennonites are finding themselves on the outs in nations that embraced them - a 500 year old pattern for Mennonites by now.